EXPO CHICAGO: April 9 - 12, 2026 at the Navy Pier

Press Release

April 2026

Hafizi and Lhoussig: Condition of Illness and Metaphor of Entropy

dmincubator gallery presents paintings and drawings by Ariane Hafizi (1981 ~ 2015) and Rahma Lhoussig (b. 1986) and at Expo Chicago 2026, the two women artists of Moroccan and Latinx/Iranian lineages respectively.

Ariane Hafizi pursued a spiritually concerned expressionism driven by her concern for the earth and connection to her inner being through the exploration of a symbolic and semi-abstract painterly language. Even after her diagnosis with breast cancer and eventual passing, Hafizi continues to exhibit posthumously, including recently at Joan Hisaoka Art Gallery in Virginia (2020 - 2021) and at Galeria Juan Risso in Madrid, Spain (2019).

Rahma Lhoussig pioneers a kind of realism that could be described as "playful" due to its accumulation of objects and symbolisms that associate with one another to create new meanings. Lhoussig anchors her art on the foundation of realism, which at times approaches the realm of magic realism. Lhoussig is an internationally exhibiting artist with recent exhibitions at National Museum of Contemporary Art in Lisbon (2023) and at Casablanca in Morocco (2022).

The link between Hafizi and Lhoussig may lie within the metaphor of entropy as Lhoussig's paintings often reflect a disorderly state of creativity. Entropy leads to the eventual heat death and end of the universe. Just as Hafizi, upon finding out her diagnosis, made a stronger push to return to her spiritual roots, Lhoussig invokes the power of creative play to reverse the direction of disorderliness.

As Hafizi and Lhoussig demonstrate, it is human nature to seek problem-solving and to overcome the limitations of our world and being, which can only be done from a spiritually sound place of healing and sincerity.